Disabling and Enabling Multipathing for Specific Devices

You can use vxdiskadm menu options 17 and 18 to disable or enable multipathing. These menu options also allow you to exclude devices from or include devices in the view of VxVM. For more information, see Disabling Multipathing and Making Devices Invisible to VxVM and Enabling Multipathing and Making Devices Visible to VxVM.

Disabling Multipathing and Making Devices Invisible to VxVM

1. Select menu task 17 (Prevent multipathing/Suppress devices from VxVM's view) from the vxdiskadm main menu to prevent a device from being multipathed by the VxVM DMP driver (vxdmp), or to exclude a device from the view of VxVM. You are prompted to confirm whether you want to continue.
2. Select the operation you want to perform from the displayed list:
     1   Suppress all paths through a controller from VxVM's view
     2   Suppress a path from VxVM's view
     3   Suppress disks from VxVM's view by specifying a VID:PID 
        combination
     4   Suppress all but one paths to a disk
     5   Prevent multipathing of all disks on a controller by VxVM
     6   Prevent multipathing of a disk by VxVM
     7   Prevent multipathing of disks by specifying a VID:PID 
        combination
     8   List currently suppressed/non-multipathed devices
     ?   Display help about menu
     ??   Display help about the menuing system
     q   Exit from menus

   Help text and examples are provided onscreen for all the menu items.

• Select option 1 to exclude all paths through the specified controller from the view of VxVM. These paths remain in the disabled state until the next reboot, or until the paths are re-included.
• Select option 2 to exclude specified paths from the view of VxVM.
• Select option 3 to exclude disks from the view of VxVM that match a specified Vendor ID and Product ID.
• Select option 4 to define a pathgroup for disks that are not multipathed by VxVM. (A pathgroup explicitly defines alternate paths to the same disk.) Only one path is made visible to VxVM.
• Select option 5 to disable multipathing for all disks on a specified controller.
• Select option 6 to disable multipathing for specified paths. The disks that correspond to a specified path are claimed in the OTHER_DISKS category and are not multipathed.
• Select option 7 to disable multipathing for disks that match a specified Vendor ID and Product ID. The disks that correspond to a specified Vendor ID and Product ID combination are claimed in the OTHER_DISKS category and are not multipathed.
• Select option 8 to list the devices that are currently suppressed or not multipathed.

Enabling Multipathing and Making Devices Visible to VxVM

1. Select menu item 18 (Allow multipathing/Unsuppress devices from VxVM's view) from the vxdiskadm main menu to re-enable multipathing for a device, or to make a device visible to VxVM again. You are prompted to confirm whether you want to continue.
2. Select the operation you want to perform from the displayed list:
   1   Unsuppress all paths through a controller from VxVM's view
   2   Unsuppress a path from VxVM's view
   3   Unsuppress disks from VxVM's view by specifying a VID:PID 
      combination
   4   Remove a pathgroup definition
   5   Allow multipathing of all disks on a controller by VxVM
   6   Allow multipathing of a disk by VxVM
   7   Allow multipathing of disks by specifying a VID:PID combination
   8   List currently suppressed/non-multipathed devices
   
   ?   Display help about menu
   ??   Display help about the menuing system
   q   Exit from menus

• Select option 1 to make all paths through a specified controller visible to VxVM.
• Select option 2 to make specified paths visible to VxVM.
• Select option 3 to make disks visible to VxVM that match a specified Vendor ID and Product ID.
• Select option 4 to remove a pathgroup definition. (A pathgroup explicitly defines alternate paths to the same disk.) Once a pathgroup has been removed, all paths that were defined in that pathgroup become visible again.
• Select option 5 to enable multipathing for all disks that have paths through the specified controller.
• Select option 6 to enable multipathing for specified paths.
• Select option 7 to enable multipathing for disks that match a specified Vendor ID and Product ID.
• Select option 8 to list the devices that are currently suppressed or not multipathed.